Systems that for instance address sustainable infrastructure operation beyond a single-system-view, and towards understanding each system connectivity with other related systems-for example-connections between WEF (Knoeri et al.

2018).Įffective and sustainable governance of WEF requires innovative and cross-sectorial systems of provisioning. The urban setting thus represents a challenge and opportunity for understanding and steering resources into more sustainable configurations (Vogt et al.

Cities thus depend on larger quantities of resources, such as Water–Energy–Food (WEF), whilst at the same time these resources become increasingly scarce (Vogt et al. Cities concentrate the largest share of the human population and they conglomerate people with the provision of services and goods for consumption (Hoff 2011). Sustainable use and supply of natural resources are becoming increasingly complex in a time of rapid urbanization and climate change (Hoff 2011 Childers et al. The paper argues that material-focused methodologies need to be complemented with a social flows analysis that pays attention to the daily practice, policies, ideologies, networks or any kind of socio-cultural meaning shaping WEF provisioning. It demonstrates that material and social dimensions of WEF might not play an equal role in steering synergies or trade-offs-either material or social flows and their agents can be central in facilitating a nexus or in preventing it to take shape. In doing so, the paper provides three examples of cities to test the conceptual framework by analyzing their main challenges and examples around the nexus. The paper suggests that switchers and programmers link and configure the socio-material flows of WEF facilitating the emergence of nexus governance networks and nexus programs.

It offers a conceptual framework that helps to shed light on the social and material flows shaping connections between the sectors of WEF, and the actors facilitating these connections. This paper contributes to theorizing the urban nexus and to understand its emergence and governance from a more socio-material perspective. What is missing is an ‘Urban Nexus’ perspective, which assumes that environmental flows of WEF interact and relate to one another in achieving urban sustainable development. However, practitioners have often treated WEF as separate domains, while ignoring their interconnectedness. Sustainable governance of Water–Energy–Food (WEF) requires innovative and cross-sectorial systems of provisioning. Sustainable use and supply of natural resources dedicated to feeding urban life are becoming increasingly complex in a time of rapid urbanization and climate change.

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